


Guitar Notes

by DemiKind



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Background Relationships, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gay, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) Friendship, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Orphan Keith (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Teen Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, klance, klangst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-05-24 00:05:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14943878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemiKind/pseuds/DemiKind
Summary: In his senior year of high school, Keith Kogane's only escape has been his guitar. Away from all of the hardships of being a foster child, an escape from his anxiety; his guitar is his only solid safe haven.-Lance is a junior who has no idea what he's doing with his life. His parents want him to be a doctor, but Lance's heart lies elsewhere, he just doesn't know exactly where yet.-Lance's only quiet place to study is in an old band room, but he has to make an agreement with a hot-headed senior to equally share the room. The senior keeps leaving the room in a state of chaos, so Lance decides to write him a note to get him in line. But little do they both know, writing that note will change their lives forever.-(idea from the book by Mary Amato.)





	Guitar Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dear Keith,  
> This room was a huge mess when I came in today.  
> I did us both a favor and cleaned it up but it took  
> a hella long time and today I got nothing done.  
> Trust me, I hate this just as much as you do- (earning a "Yeah, right." from Keith)  
> but I have to use this to help me. If I ever don't  
> need the room for a day, I'll let you know. But  
> In the meantime, try not to make this place a  
> huge mess? It kinda sucks.  
> -L

** Tuesday, September 18th, 2018 **

7:25am

Lance ran downstairs in a huff, he had woken up late. "SORRY JOEL!" Lance yelled.

"Your breakfast is cold! No hubieras dormido tanto!" Lance's older brother yelled from the kitchen.

"OKAY I'LL-" Lance's foot slipped, "WURGHLAAAHHHH!" Lance's face crashed into the windowsill, "Goddamn..." Lance turned to look at what he slipped on, and there was his cat chewing on a long ribbon. Lance shook his head, "Jesus, Kirby." He stood up and pat his cat on the head, "Don't kill me, buddy." His cat simply purred in response.

"LANCE!"

"Coming!" Lance ran into the kitchen, backpack swung over his shoulder. There was his older brother, Joel. Cleaning pans from breakfast. Lance went up to his plate and stuffed the scrambled eggs and bacon in his mouth. His brother was right, it did get a bit cold; it's not like Lance would ever admit it, though.

"We have  _one_ bus that goes to our school, Lance. One." Joel scowled, "We were lucky enough to get accepted into the school, we better not fuck it up." Joel sighed, "At least try for mom's sake, okay?"

Lance sighed, gulping the food down, "I know. I'm sorry, I'll be better."

Joel nodded and messed up Lance's hair, "I know you will, douchebag."

Lance took a swig of water, "Fuck you."

"You're a prick."

"You're a pain in the ass."

"Shut up, both of you." Lance's younger sister, Alicia, hissed at them as she came into the room. She grabbed an apple from a bowl on the counter and took a bite. Mouth full, she growled at both of them, "You two are gonna wake up the rest of the house."

Lance rolled his eyes, "No es como si fueras de ayuda."

Alica put her hand on her hip, "You could shove your attitude right up your-"

"Guys." Joel shut the fridge forcefully, "Bus. Two minutes. We go now."

He slipped on his shoes and left the front door open for his siblings to follow him out. Alicia looked at Lance and sighed.

"What are we gonna do with him?" She shook her head.

"Beats me." Lance sighed and tied his batman converse on his feet.

Lance ran his hand under some sink water and ran his hands through his hair. He sighed and threw his backpack over his shoulder, nearly sinking under the weight of all of the books. He splashed more sink water on his face to try to wake himself up, then sighed.

 _This'll be the death of me._  He thought to himself. Then he followed his little sister out the door and locked it.

 

* * *

 

7:45am

Keith just finished putting his bike lock on when he was called to from outside the coffee shop.

"Keith! You got ten minutes! Hurry up!"

Keith blew his fringe away from his face, "Coming!" He ran over to the Starbucks, where Shiro was outside holding an iced mocha, "Thanks," He huffed, taking a few gulps off the bat.

"Someone's thirsty." Shiro laughed.

Keith rolled his eyes, "More like someone's tired." He let the coffee sink down his throat and Keith ran his empty hand over his eyes, trying to make himself feel less tired.

"How's the year treating you so far?"

Keith huffed, "Like hell." He sipped again, "I couldn't keep a single 'A' for longer than a few days."

Shiro rubbed his shoulder, "You'll be fine, senior year's not that bad."

"Yeah and that's coming from Mr. Hot-sports-guy-who-graduated-top-of-his-class blah bleh blah." Keith mimicked, narrowing his eyes, but it just made Shiro laugh.

"It wasn't that easy, Keith."

"Still. I'm not..." Keith moved his hands in a weird way, "Good at school. I don't know why you helped me go to that fancy school, Shiro! I'm not good at-" Keith gripped his coffee too hard and the lid popped off, coffee spilling over his gloved hand and onto his jacket, "Fuck..."

Shiro pulled up the sleeve of his jacket (which was hidden underneath a leather one, similar to Keith's) to wipe the coffee off of Keith, "Dude, breathe. It's only the first month. You're not that far into the school year yet-"

"I don't give a damn, Shiro!" Keith yelled, putting the cup on a table and trying to wipe the coffee off with his hands, pushing Shiro away, "I don't have you at school anymore, my foster family sucks, and now this douchebag junior took away my practice room!" 

Shiro shook his head, "What?"

"You remember that one freshman from a few years ago with that shit-eating grin and kept flirting with you in Drama class?"

"I thought his smile was nice-"

"I'm not done," Keith snapped, "He made- I mean.. MAKES fun of my hair, and keeps saying I'm an emo douchebag. And he was super bad at sports and programming but still did those classes anyways because you were in them! And remember he-"

"You mean Lance?"

"YES! THAT'S HIS NAME!" Keith sighed, "Anyways, you know how I go to my band room to play guitar every lunch? I call you sometimes-" Keith realized he was out of breath from rambling and sighed, "Are you able to follow?"

Shiro nodded, "Following. What about the room?"

"Fucker made Mr. Murry- you know, the band teacher; He made Mr. Murry give him the room for a few days because it's quiet in that room and he has to study! Study what?! I'm sure he's perfectly fine at most of his subjects and he needs to shove his attitude up his ass and you know that the hallway's only quiet because I play my fucking music during lunch and without that it'll be loud and-"

"I'm detecting anger. Slow down, Keith." Shiro messed up Keith's hair, earning a scowl from him, "What did he do  _this_ time?"

Keith sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "He has the room for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and we have to alternate Fridays. This week it's my Friday. But..."

Shiro sighed, "Maybe this'll be good for you, Keith."

Keith's eyes went wide and he coughed, "Are you joking?"

"No," Shiro shook his head, "You're a senior, which means you can go off-campus for lunch, right?" 

Keith shrugged, "Right."

"So!" Shiro nudged his shoulder, "I'll pick you up and we can get lunch today, okay?"

Keith sighed, "Fine," he checked his watch, "I have to go, can we just go to Taco Bell or something?" 

Shiro bro-hugged Keith, "You got it, say hi to your wife, Lance for me!"

Keith rolled his eyes and laughed, "Fuck off, man!"

"I'm your best friend, let me joke! Now get out of here!"

Keith laughed and flipped him off, then turned to unlock his bike.

 

* * *

  

10:22am

Allura was waiting for Lance at his locker, just like she has since she transferred to their school last year.

"You took your time getting here." Allura laughed, smiling.

Lance unlocked his locker and shoved two textbooks into it, "It was two minutes, Allura! And I had a schedule change so-"

"So it's on the other side of the school now, I know." She laughed, "So we sitting together at Lunch today? Hunk and Pidge had something cool to talk about from their science class."

Lance shook his head, "No, actually... I just got that band room I've been wanting to study in."

"No way!" Allura seemed excited, "Funny how you were able to snag it away from Keith."

"He practically lives in that room, I know." Lance pulled out three more books and slammed his locker shut, "I have it Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday."

"That's great!" Allura lit up, "I'm so happy for you!"

"What's she happy about?" Pidge came up behind Allura and leaned on her, while Lance felt someone put their arm around him.

"Yeah! Any news we missed, any flirting we missed the chance to make fun of?" Hunk smirked.

Lance snickered and shoved Hunk away, "Nah, I just finally got a few days in one of the small band rooms."

"Dude, that's sick!" Hunk exclaimed.

Pidge raised their eyebrow, "It's funny how people here are using music rooms to study in," They pushed their glasses up, "Maybe you should've let Keith keep it-"

"Keith gets literally everything! He doesn't need that band room  _every_ day of the week!"

Allura raised an eyebrow, "That's not exactly true, Lance."

Lance banged his head on my locker, "You guys sound like my brother and sister. Let me have this  _one_ day to be happy about it before Keith gives me shit again."

"Fine, we're happy for you, dude." Hunk smiled.

"Thank you-"

The bell rang.

"Gotta blast!" Pidge waved, "See you guys after class!"

"Bye guys!" Hunk ran off towards the direction Pidge was headed.

Allura looked at Lance and laughed, "Class time," she held her arm up, jokingly, "M'Lady, shall we go?"

Lance chuckled and put his arm between hers, "Yes Ma'am."

 

12:30pm

_No. Way._ Lance thought as he dropped his backpack. It fell from his shoulder and onto the floor.

Now, the individual band rooms are rather small. There's normally a small desk and chair, a whiteboard, a piano or guitar, a file cabinet, and a slanted window (because they're located on the top floor of the school).

This band room happened to be pretty much (Lance's version of) trashed. There were pillows set up across two rickety desk chairs with a ratty blanket that looks like it's been there for years. There were scribbles on the whiteboard that seemed like plans for a manga or something, but the drawings were covering every square inch. There were staples, metal nails, spilled black nail polish and broken guitar strings thrown on the ground. The file cabinet was open and papers were spilling out of each drawer. There were also scattered jackets and bracelets, probably belonging to the senior Lance's sharing the room with.

There was only one thing in the room in good condition.

The guitar sitting in the corner.

It was black around the outside and faded into orange in the center. It was acoustic, but it looked like there was a place to plug it into an amp. There was a red and black double-sided ribbon tied above the fretboard, and it seemed in pretty good condition.

Lance sighed. He picked his bag up off the floor and threw it onto the table. He threw the pillows and blankets on the chairs onto the floor. He sat down and just felt...  _Uneasy_. He looked around the room and just felt tense.

Lance sighed again.

 _Fuck it_.

That's when Lance decided to pick up the room, even though he knew it would waste his time.

In a way, he appreciated it though.

He would give nearly anything to not focus on his expectations and responsibilities. They were exhausting, and Lance knew it.

He just didn't know how to escape them.

 

12:45pm

Lance's cleaning was interrupted by a harsh knock on the door of the room.

"Shit fuck shit shit shit," Lance stumbled getting up and threw a textbook on his desk to make it look like he was doing homework, "Joel? Alicia? That you?"

To Lance's relief, Hunk walked into the room and tossed a carton of chocolate milk Lance's way, "Heads up." Lance caught it.

"Jesus, Hunk. I thought you were my brother."

"Joel the jerk?" Hunk laughed, "Hell no," Hunk took a look around the room, "What happened to this room?"

Lance sighed and crossed his arms, "Keith happened." Lance scowled, "Fucking Keith, fucking prick-"

"You mean the senior with the black guitar that only hangs out with your old crush?" Hunk chuckled, "You know, I thought you got over Shiro a long time ago but your obsession with hating Keith has gotten-"

"It has nothing to do with Shiro!" Lance sighed, "Keith had the room yesterday, and he made it a wreck!  _He_ was obviously trying to piss me off!"

Hunk rolled his eyes and walked over to the files, beginning to help Lance clean up, "You could've just...  _Left the mess_. You know? For Keith to get later?"

Lance grunted, "I can't work in messy situations!"

"You were able to work when you were outed." 

"True."

"And when Pidge ran away from home that one time."

"Right."

"And when-"

Lance sighed, "Messy surroundings! I hate messy rooms! That good enough?!"

"Yeah, man." Hunk continued to organize the filing cabinet when he paused, "Dude, if you don't want Keith to leave a mess, just tell him!"

Lance raised an eyebrow, "You kidding, Hunk? I hate the guy! What makes you think I want to talk to him?"

Hunk shrugged, "Just like, leave a note somewhere he'll see it and tell him to clean up or something."

Lance sighed, "Where would I-" Then something caught his eye.

_That guitar._

Lance scrambled in his backpack and pulled out a pen and a sticky note.

"You taking my advice?" Hunk chuckled,

"Yeah, could be useful." Lance clicked the pen, "Maybe he'll pay attention to something like this."

* * *

 

12:30pm

"You feeling any better?"

Keith was sitting on the roof of Shiro's car stuffing his face with a Taco Bell burrito. He put his cherry coke up to his lips and drank a huge gulp. The sugar was sticking to Keith's gloves, but all he could do was wait until he felt better. That normally took awhile.

Keith looked down at Shiro, who was leaning on the front hood of the car, shrugging, "What do you think?"

Shiro jumped onto the room and began to drink his large Pepsi, "Dude, don't put too much thought into it-"

"Chanfph yuh jmsuf lup meh bew upswet?" Keith snapped, mouth full of burrito. 

"What on earth did you just say?" Shiro laughed,

Keith gulped, "Can you just let me be upset?"

Shiro sighed, "Being upset will get you nowhere," 

Keith just looked in a random direction, trying to make himself zone out (which never works), "Just... Of all people! Fucking _Lance_?!"

"Keith, he doesn't try to fight you on purpose."

Keith's eyes widened, "Have you seen him at school? He worked his ass of to try and get into a higher math class than me, he didn't sleep because he wanted to be better at science, he nearly  _died_ trying to out-run me in PE..."

"I don't think he nearly died."

Keith ate more burrito, "Doeth an athma attack coump ath doying?"

"No, it just feels like it, cause you can't breathe, or something." Shiro drank more of his pepsi, "Keith, you still have your room, just not completely. It'll be okay."

"It's more than just a  _room_." Keith sighed, "I practically live there cause my foster family sucks and they think I'm out studying or something. I don't have to study, I'm doing fine in my classes."

"You'll be eighteen in a week," Shiro smiled, "You're moving in with me when that happens, just don't worry about it. It's only a week left."

Keith sighed and nudges Shiro's arm with his own, "I know, man." He sighed, "I know."

 

4:45pm

_No. Way._ Keith's jaw dropped as his backpack fell to the floor. 

The school day was over now. Keith had come back to grab some spare strings to find that his room was almost completely clean. Pillows had somehow disappeared, all the files were spotless, and the window was even open to let fresh air in.

Keith sighed. The room isn't  _his_ anymore. It had been for the last three years, but he could feel it ending, and he hated it.

He sighed and glanced at the desk, the guitar was there (not on its stand) leaning on the desk, and there was a couple notebooks, both with rocket-ship stickers on the upper righthand corners. There was something on his guitar.

"The Hell..." He thought out loud. There was a sticky note on the strings crammed with small writing, he walked over and snapped it up and began to read;

 _Dear Keith,_  
_This room was a huge mess when I came in today._  
I did us both a favor and cleaned it up but it took  
a hella long time and today I got nothing done.  
Trust me, I hate this just as much as you do- (earning a "Yeah, right." from Keith)  
_but I have to use this to help me. If I ever don't_  
_need the room for a day, I'll let you know. But_  
In the meantime, try not to make this place a  
huge mess? It kinda sucks.  
-L

Keith felt his hands clench around the piece of paper and he threw it to the garbage. He missed the can. As it bounced onto the floor, Keith bit his lip. He looked at the notebooks on the table, and they each had corners of yellow notebooks taped onto the front, they both had "Lance McClain" written on them. Keith picked them up, unsure of what to do. He wanted to throw them away or rip them up. He opened one, and it was full of Trigonometry bullshit that Keith doesn't remember (he tested out of math a year ago). The handwriting was unfairly neat and there were scribbles all over the pages. Keith was ready to chuck them into the bin when the door quickly opened.

"The hell?"

* * *

 

4:47pm

"The hell?" Lance gasped as he opened the door to see Keith there holding his books, holding a few pages that made it look like he was about to rip them out. Lance walked over and snatched the books from Keith's hands, "What the fuck, Mullet?!"

Mullet-Douchebag-Prick shook his head, "What?! I was just looking at them!"

"Like hell!" Lance sighed, putting them in his backpack, mumbling, "Sos un estúpido." 

"What?" Mullethead was crossing his arms,

Lance slung his back, "None of your fucking business."

Keith grabbed his shoulder, "Are  _you_ mad because you have  _my_ room for some of the week."

Lance shoved Keith's arm off of him, "Fuck off, dude! It's not  _your_ room! It's always been the schools!"

"But like," Keith made some weird hand gestures, "I was always the one who had this room for lunches! My parents paid and everything!"

"Not everyone can afford their own band rooms." Lance sighed, "You're always trying to one-up me!"

Keith's jaw dropped, "Since when?!"

"Since..." Lance clenched his fists then turned to open the door again, "Screw you, Mullet!"

"Are you mad because I left the room a mess?" Keith sounded cocky,

"Not mad," Lance took a deep breath, "Frustrated; I got no work done today and that's all I wanted to do."

Keith rolled his eyes, "You could have just left the mess and done your work anyways."

_He's right._

Lance bit the inside of his cheeks until they bled, "Well, it bothered me!"

Keith just rolled his eyes, "Whatever, McClain."

Lance bit harder, then just swung the door open and left.

"What a douchebag."

* * *

 

Keith rolled his eyes, "What a dumbass."

 

5:30pm

 

Keith shut the door in his room and collapsed on his bed

Keith's bedroom was fairly empty since he was moving out in less than a week. It was mostly barren other than a few suitcases that were laying unzipped on his bedroom floor. There was his mattress, his empty closet, his clean(ish) desk, and a cleaned night-stand. There was a hippo plushie and a few pillows thrown on the bed along with a blanket, but all that remained of Keith was either tucked away in the suitcases, or in a room in Shiro's apartment.

Keith planned to live with Shiro and his other roommate, Matt, since a few months ago when Keith had a breakdown about not knowing what to do when he graduated. 

His room currently reflected how Keith felt. Empty and confused.

Keith's phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a text from Shiro; a picture of Matt jumping on a couch, followed by another picture of Matt (probably) looking for the glasses that were no longer on his face.

Keith chuckled and swiped to text back.

** Keith **

Tell him to check under his ego.

 

Keith sighed and laughed at his comment. Was it funny? It sounded funny to him. And that was good enough. He got another buzz.

 

**Shiro**

He says "Go fuck yourself".

 

**Keith**

I can later;)

 

**Shiro**

Inappropriate.

 

Keith leaned over to plug in his phone, laughing at himself. And he stared at the ceiling.

Lance McClain, of course, it was Lance McClain.

Keith has had a crush on him since his junior year. He didn't know how the crush started or when or why, but it was still there. But Keith didn't know how to handle crushes.

When Lance was a sophomore, he had a major crush on Shiro (who was a senior at the time). Now Shiro has been best friends with Keith for years, and Lance was jealous of that. So Lance grew to hate Keith, while jokingly flirting with Shiro in their drama classes (and literally every other class they had together, but he was a lot more flamboyant in drama). Keith, in return, tried to hate Lance.

In a way, Keith does hate Lance. He hates how loud and obnoxious he is and how he acts like the smartest and coolest person in the world. Keith also hates Lance's brother, who was a massive show-off. Keith guessed it ran in the family.

Keith sighed and continued to stare at the ceiling. He'd managed to avoid him all summer long, and now Lance was back in Keith's life in the most unpleasant way.

Then Keith sat up, a devilish grin plastered on his face. He set an alarm on his phone for 5:30am. He'd have to get to school early. He grabbed a pen and scribbled his idea on his arm so he wouldn't forget it.

He kept his smirk.

_Go to hell, Lance McClain._

* * *

 

9:45pm

Lance was sat up at his desk trying to finish his math homework. He was currently trying to figure out how to make sense of his advanced Calculus homework. 

_I definitely should've done this at school._

Lance's room was upstairs, in the attic. His loud family causing a ruckus downstairs. He sat back in his chair and sighed.

His brother had just finished yelling at him about not triple-checking his English essay for grammatical errors, and Lance was exhausted.

He didn't know what to do to prove to his family that he was good enough. He'd probably have to convince himself that he could do it first.

This year might be easier if Keith doesn't make it a living hell.

For the past two years, Keith seemed to have made it his mission to make sure Lance knew he sucked at everything. He was always skulking around with his "I'm too edgy for this" attitude all while being best friends with the coolest guy in school and being the top of all of his classes. Lance found himself constantly being compared to Keith by his friends and family. As if Lance was  _almost_ as good at everything as Keith was. But... Just  _almost_. 

But it was funny, Joel was in Keith's grade, not Lance. Yet people continued to compare them for years.

Lance and Keith, neck and neck. That was how it was for the past two years.

Keith's even a grade above Lance, it wasn't fair for the two to be compared all of the time.

But that's the way it has been

The school is so small too, everyone knows who everyone is, and everyone knew everyone's shit.

All except Keith.

Only Shiro knows Keith.

It pissed Lance off. That someone could be so secretive and be able to stay somewhat stable.

Lance jumped onto his bed and stared up at his ceiling, where there were old paintings of stars and random planets and rockets.

Keith seemed stable mentally, he could keep it all inside.

Lance wished that he could deal with his shit that way, but he can't.

"God damn it, Keith Kogane..." Lance thought aloud, "Why can't I be like you. Maybe then my family would be proud of me. Maybe I could be proud of myself."

Lance stared at his ceiling, stuck in his thoughts.

_Just rest, you'll be okay tomorrow._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REMEMBERED A BOOK I READ WHEN I WAS YOUNGER AND I'M HELLA EXCITED TO DO MY OWN VARIATION OF IT!!! This'll basically be my version of an angsty high school AU but I wanted to give it a try (as I'm still recovering from finishing Your Name). Please leave me feedback below, I know this is all a little spread-out and weird at the moment. I want to give a HUGE thanks to kyuminniie on tumblr for helping with translations and dealing with me thanking them constantly haha. I hope you guys enjoy my new mess :)


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